22 Mar 2016

The Australian Sikh Heritage Trail

The other day, I saw this in the newspaper.

What sparked my interest was the fact that the little snippet of news mentioned the existence of an old Sikh Cemetery in Adenia Park, a place I had visited countless times with Flemington, but had never heard of the old Sikh Cemetery, and certainly had never seen any grave sites.

With my curiosity piqued, Grandma C and I went to the launch of the Australian Sikh Heritage Trail.

We were greeted by a Sikh bagpipe band.

There were many stalls and some activities going on. There was a stall where you could get a turban tied on for you.

We noticed a man with a bow-tie having his turban tying completed, and suddenly realised that this was our City of Cannington's mayor, Paul Ng.

There was dancing:

There were stalls depicting Sikh involvement in the Australian Armed Forces,

And their role as itinerant hawkers.

There were free camel rides, and Grandma (Never-Miss-a-Freebie!) C took full advantage of that!

I found out why there were no graves, or remnants of graves, as this was more a cremation site rather than a burial one.

Finally, I had a look at their website, and saw the aerial picture of the Sikh Heritage Trail.

What is interesting to me is that the heritage trail formed part of my walks with Flemington. We had spent many happy hours here and here's a couple of my favourite photos of Flem in this reserve.

We do not have many Indians in Sibu but we have had a few all along, some Sikhs and there's a Sikh temple - been around since I was a kid. I bet the ones here have an interesting heritage and history.http://www.theborneopost.com/2015/04/14/iic-delegation-calls-on-houses-of-worship-of-other-faiths/

I didn't know that the Indians and Sikhs in Peninsular Malaysia did not spread very much into Sarawak and Sabah. Indian migration to Perth has increased greatly in the past ten years or so, at least in my area.

The pictures are very colourful and picturesque. Reminded me of LKY appearing in a Sikh turban when he visited the Sikh commnunity previously and recently LHL also continued with the tradition to identify with the community. Arthur, would have been good to see you in one too! The Sikhs not only look but they are indeed fearless and are always welcomed as comrades-in-arms.

I wonder whether their soft side was show-cased with the "Bhangra Dance at the WA Cultural event. This dance is highly energetic and rhythmic, requiring high-level stamina, and only recently publicised. You might be able to watch it on Youtube.